What keywords should I choose?

[KS__]

I am on a job to finalize a list of keywords for my website... but I must admit after days of brainstorming I am thoroughly confused with what all to go for. I understand this is a very important decision that has to be made else all the hard work I will do in the coming months will go down the drain, thus, this request fr help.

Before I ask my questions it is worth considering that my website has a DA of 39, Domain Age of 8yrs and PR of 4.

Here are specific questions that I have:

1. I am using Good Adwords for the research. Is that appropriate?

2. Since I am just beginning with SEO, should I opt for keywords that have

• extremely high competition + extremely high traffic?
  or

• high competition + low traffic?

or

• low competition + low traffic?

3. Should I go for long tail keywords that don't attract a lot of traffic BUT make sense?

4. Please suggest a good tool to research competition.

Please will me with the above and direct me to videos/books/blogs that can help me with this.

[Alick300]

Hi,

1>GKP gives only closely related keywords, it’s horrible at coming up with new keyword ideas.

2> I'm not picking either of your option here IMO you should try for high traffic & less competitive keywords

3>You should target long tail keywords along with two terms keywords.

4>First I would like to suggest you to check these two (below) keyword research guide.

a>http://backlinko.com/keyword-research

b>http://backlinko.com/long-tail-keywords

and semrush tool would be the best.

Hope this helps.

Thanks

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

There are some great resources on Moz to help you with this:
Keyword Research
Keywords to Concepts: The Lazy Web Marketer's Guide to Smart Keyword Research
Simple Steps for Conducting Creative Content Research

All of these should give you some great pointers and tips to be well on your way. I would also take a look at developing personas and content as part of the user experience. Researching both these areas will also help you structure your site in both a user and crawler friendly fashion.

Researching your audience, where they are, how they digest content, and doing some well thought out competitor research will help inform your keyword and content research in a more deep and granular fashion. The research will essentially answer itself.

I personally like to go after high volume, low competition, but then create long tail variations of those keywords/queries based on what my audience is talking about and how they get their information.

There's really no right or wrong way to do keyword research, it's just a matter of knowing your audience's goals, where they are, your place in the industry, and how to develop content that moves your audience through the funnel. Create the best user experience from a content and structure standpoint, and you are golden.

Also, don't forget that Moz has a keyword difficulty tool that is highly valuable.

Hope this all helps! Good luck!